On 27 September, President Edgars Rinkēvičs sent to the Saeima a legislative initiative that envisages amendments to the section of the Criminal Code on crimes against the State. In his letter to the Presidium of the Saeima President Rinkēvičs expresses his conviction that every democratic state has a duty to act to guarantee the stability and effectiveness of its democratic system. State penal policy is one of the manifestations of a self-defensive democracy, addressing internal and external threats to the State through criminal law.
Although Chapter X of the Criminal Code, Crimes against the State, was substantially amended in 2016, the international security situation has deteriorated significantly since the amendments entered into force, and Latvia has been under particular threat for several years. For example, since 2021, Belarus has been conducting a hybrid attack on the Latvia-Belarus border. On 24 February 2022, Latvia's neighbour, Russia, launched an undisguised full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. Russia's expanded war in Ukraine has a direct negative impact on Latvia's national security.
In the President's view, the Criminal Code should be appropriate to the threat, not disproportionately weak in relation to the potential damage to the interests of the state and society, or disproportionately restrictive in relation to new forms of harmful activity by individuals. Latvia's penal policy should ensure that penalties are capable of achieving all the objectives of punishment set out in the Criminal Code in a balanced manner, including the protection of public safety and the deterrence of offences. Latvia's penal policy must therefore be an effective tool at the disposal of the State to address crimes that threaten Latvia's national security.
‘I believe that the introduction of harsher penalties in the Criminal Code for crimes against the State will send a clear message from the legislator to both those who apply the Criminal Code and the Latvian and foreign public that Latvia will not tolerate a threat to its security,’ reads a letter from President Edgars Rinkēvičs to the Presidium of the Saeima.
At the same time as these amendments to the Criminal Code, the President of Latvia, taking into account the information received from law enforcement authorities, calls on the Ministry of Justice to pay attention to a broader and systemic review of the regulation of penal policy, assessing the need to provide for liability for other actions that threaten Latvia's security.